The New Week's Preparation for a Worthy Receiving of the Lord's Supper was a devotional manual, first published in 1739, with the intention of superseding the older work A Week's Preparation towards a Worthy Receiving of the Lord's Supper, first published in 1679 (see Case Study 2.1). The New Week's Preparation went through many editions and continued in use into the early years of the nineteenth century (Stone, 1909: II, 506). The following material, taken from The New Week's Preparation demonstrates the eucharistic theology presented.

The Eucharist is spoken of as a commemorative sacrifice, whereby the passion of Christ is presented in heaven and in the Eucharist. In discussing the purpose of the Eucharist, the manual says:

“It was for our sakes, and to draw us up to Thy love, that Thou hast commanded us to commemorate and represent Thy passion, and present the merits of it before Thy Father on earth, as Thou dost present them to Him in heaven. It was for our sakes, and to help the infirmities of our nature, that Thou didst appoint a commemorative sacrifice of that one oblation of Thyself once offered upon the cross, and bread and wine so offered and blessed as symbols of Thy body and blood.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 507).

The commemorative sacrifice in the Eucharist is one which represents Christ's passion, presenting it before God on earth, as Christ presents it before God in heaven. This suggests a realist view, where sign and signified are linked. Immoderate notions are denied in that the oblation is said to be offered only once, that is, on the cross and the bread and wine are seen as symbols, not the oblation itself. Realist notions are therefore moderate in degree.

The nature of the commemorative sacrifice is further explained in this passage. The New Week's Preparation, asks that God will:

“ … accept this representation we make before Thee of that all-sufficient sacrifice which Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ made upon the cross: let the merit of it plead effectually for the pardon and forgiveness of all my sins, and render Thee favourable and propitious to me a miserable sinner; let the wisdom of it make me wise unto salvation; and let the peace of it reconcile me unto thee, and bring to me peace of conscience. And then, O Blessed Jesus, my Redeemer, I shall be enabled to adore Thee, who didst endure the painful and shameful death of the cross to recover me from the state of sin and misery. … With all my souls, O dear Jesus, I love and praise Thee for the stupendous expression of Thy bounty and goodness towards me. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon me; O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant me Thy peace. Amen, Lord Jesus. Amen.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 507).

When speaking of what is received in the Eucharist The New Week’s Preparation says:

“I beseech Thee, O Lord, to cure my infirmities, and let me not only receive the outward and visible sign, but the inward and spiritual grace, the body and blood of Thy Son Jesus Christ.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 507).

It was not merely the outward sign that was received in the Eucharist, but the inward and spiritual grace as well. This ‘inward and spiritual grace’ described as the body and blood of Christ is clearly distinguished from any fleshy or natural presence in the following statement:

“A Sacrament which at once by the bread broken signifies the body of Christ broken on the cross and by the wine poured out signifies the blood of Christ shed at His crucifixion. But guard against that doctrine which teaches that we eat the natural body and blood of Christ; for the natural body and blood of Christ are in heaven and not here, it being against the truth of Christ’s natural body to be at one time in more places than one; and therefore we cannot eat and drink Christ’s natural body and blood in the sacrament.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 508).

Immoderate realism is denied. It is less clear however, whether moderate realism is implied here in relation to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This is emphasised in the following:

“It cannot be the natural body and blood of Christ which is eaten and drank in the Lord’s Supper, but something else, namely, bread and wine, in remembrance of them.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 508).

There is clearly some distance suggested in this passage between the sign and the signified and this is indicative of nominalism in relation to eucharistic presence. Despite this in another passage we find the following:

“The real presence maintained by Protestants is not the presence of Christ’s natural body, but the real presence of Christ’s invisible power and grace so in and with the elements of bread and wine as to convey spiritual and real effects to the souls of such as duly receive them; … Now, spiritual food and sustenance is doubtless the food and sustenance of the spirit; so to eat and drink spiritually is a figurative expression, and signifies the feeding upon Christ’s body with our heart by faith.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 509).

Here then are clear suggestions of moderate realism and the reticence to link the sign and the signified could be accounted for by the clear desire to distance the natural flesh and blood from the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Immoderate notions of any natural presence of Christ’s body are denied, but real presence is affirmed as ‘Christ’s invisible power and grace’ which is ‘in and with the elements of bread and wine’ to the effect that they ‘convey spiritual and real effects to the souls’ of those who receive them. This is seemingly moderate realism. The use of the term ‘figurative’ therefore for The New Week’s Preparation seems to be suggestive of moderate realism. This is confirmed by the statement that:

“ … bread and wine … may by the blessing and appointment of God be as communicative of grace as the true natural flesh and blood of Christ itself can be.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 509).

Bread and wine are clearly the means of communicating the grace of Christ to those who receive them since Christ’s invisible power and grace is in and with the bread and wine. All this is again confirmed in this passage:

“Wherefore it is my firm belief that, as this Sacrament is matter of mere institution and appointment, I am concerned to know nor more either what the Sacrament is, or how it operates, than it hath pleased God to reveal in the Holy Scriptures. And it will be sufficient for me to believe that the consecrated elements are both called and made the body and blood of Christ so verily and indeed to all spiritual intents and purposes as to convey to the faithful receiver whatever grace and blessing of Christ hath annexed to the due performance of those holy rites which He hath ordained as pledges of His love and for our joy and comfort.” (The New Week's Preparation, in Stone, 1909: II, 509).

The author is less interested in how the presence occurs, but more interested in its certainty and operation. It is important to note that the author speaks of the bread and wine being not only ‘called’ the body and blood of Christ, but also being ‘made’ the body and blood of Christ. This suggests that there is some conversion of the bread and wine as a result of consecration which allows the bread and wine to have ‘annexed’ (with and in) to it the grace and blessing of Christ. This is not in any way meant to be a natural or fleshy presence (immoderate realism) but a real presence nonetheless (moderate realism) which is truly received by the communicant. There is in this sense a clear linking between sign and signified in a moderate realist manner.

The New Week’s Preparation for a Worthy Receiving of the Lord’s Supper